Lipton’s new campaign for its Lipton Tea & Honey iced tea mixes – being launched this month -- and Lipton 100% Natural ready-to-drink bottled iced tea will feature Grammy Award-winning trio Lady Antebellum. The 2012 campaign, which will leverage the scale and reach of the partnership between Unilever and the Pepsi Lipton Partnership, will span national TV, print, radio, digital, branded online content, retail integrations and a consumer promotion. The budget for this campaign for the iced tea lines is double 2011’s overall marketing spend for all Lipton tea products. It’s also double the spending for the last Unilever/Pepsi Lipton Partnership joint campaign, in 2006, which included print, TV and retail integrations. The creative is still in development; however, the iced teas’ existing “Think Positive” theme/tagline will continue. “Lipton and Lady Antebellum share a positive and approachable style, and we’re excited to bring the ‘Drink Positive’ spirit to life -- together -- in a big way this year,” says Marc Hanson of the Pepsi-Lipton Partnership. The 100% Natural Lipton Iced Tea line, which was launched last year, is adding a 64-ounce family-size bottle. Lipton Tea & Honey mixes -- fruit-flavored teas sweetened with honey, in six varieties -- will be available in stores in mid-March, in 16.9-ounce “to-go” packets and one-quart pitcher packets. That launch is currently being supported with free samples. Clicking into LiptonTeaandHoney.com takes users to Lipton’s Facebook page; those who “like” the brand can receive a free sample (the number of available samples is limited).
Rush Limbaugh's radio show on which he labeled Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke things like “slut” and “prostitute,” and suggested that women who demand contraception should find their way into the pornography business may be something of a sideshow, but it's a sponsor-supported one. It is also a Petri dish for how the fragmentation of media and the advent of consumer-generated and social platforms have created an environment that makes outrageous statements currency for buzz and for energizing factions. And if the decision of Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, not to seek another term is a comment on the death of bipartisanship on Capitol Hill, the same rigor mortis everywhere else has created a minefield for marketers. As JCPenney's experience vis à vis Ellen Degeneres demonstrates, you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. Drew Neisser, president of New York-based Renegade, points out that there is no such thing as neutral for a consumer brand, and social media has made that situation even more incendiary. "The role social plays is that it can quickly amplify an outrageous statement, and among the like-minded it will spread like wildfire," he says. "I think that it's rare today to be able to do a successful campaign that doesn't alienate someone." The media typhoon around Limbaugh’s comments won't likely go away tomorrow, although (given our short collective attention span), it might blow out to sea the day after or by next week, when the next outrageous comment is made by another soap boxer. David Gales, partner at Nashville-based marketing firm The Gales Network, notes that outrageous statements are so common these days, it seems remarkable when they actually inspire enough outrage to create real activism (versus coordinated activism among highly motivated, sophisticated partisans.) "A fully rational and cogent statement wouldn't get any attention these days. Someone is going to have to say the moon is really made out of green cheese," he says. "We are bombarded by so much fantastical information that our threshold for reaction has gotten higher and higher. We almost expect these kind of comments." Gales has a point. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, another polarizing persona, on Thursday was able to recharge his buzz value by hauling out a "volunteer task force" to exhume the birther question. Arpaio is suggesting that President Barack Obama's birth certificate was a computer-generated forgery. Arpaio happens also to be facing a federal inquiry involving alleged racial profiling. Still, the storm has not died yet. On Friday, President Obama called Fluke on the phone to thank her for publicly backing the administration’s plan to make contraceptives part of health-insurance coverage. On Thursday, Fluke was on MSNBC’s “The Ed Show,” and the very Web-savvy factions of the Democratic Party have been keeping things rolling with social-media efforts and email blasts. And sponsors of Limbaugh’s show, which is owned by Clear Channel's Premier Radio, do seem to be getting jittery. Among them, Heart & Body and Sleep Train had pulled their ads by early Friday. Later in the day, the number of sponsors considering pulling ads was up to five, including AutoZone, eHarmony, and Sleep Train. (Editor's note: By Monday, at least seven sponsors had pulled their ads, some after Limbaugh had posted an apology to Fluke on his web site.) Congressional Democrats are demanding that Republican House Speaker Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, denounce Limbaugh. That won't happen, but it's probably not good news for brands that would like to have their cake and eat it, too: reach Rush's passionate fan base without getting noticed too much for it outside of that fan base. Neisser says that the risk is the reward for marketers. "[Those advertising on Limbaugh's radio show] are doing it to drive business, and it must be effective for them because people listening to Rush have a favorable opinion of anyone who advertises there," he says. "The issue here is, can he say something that will so alienate a motivated and specific group to boycott an advertiser of his, because his fans are not going to do that. It becomes a question of whether an advertiser can handle the heat."
Street Football is big. No, it's not football with a pig skin played on Broadway, but soccer played perhaps on the Royal Trunk Road or in South America or Europe. And it's not big in the U.S., which is why you haven't (probably) heard of it. Still the events bring thousands of spectators, judging from ESPN shots of crowds watching the major tournaments. But the amateur-level sport is big in Asia, which is why Asia Pacific Breweries (APB), which makes Tiger beer -- which you also may not have heard of if you don't have frequent flier miles to Asia or don't frequent Thai restaurants -- is a big backer, and sponsor of a huge tournament this month. Tiger Street Football is a global tournament comprising 5-on-5 matches on asphalt on what Tiger describes as an oval pitch. The tournament, which is in Thailand starting March 9, will bring in amateur teams from Asia, South America and Europe (but not Brooklyn, alas), who will compete, leading to the world-title Thailand National Finals this month. The games will be aired on ESPN's Asia channel. APB is supporting the event with its first Pacific Rim ad campaign via London-based production company and design studio Brand New School (BNS) under the aegis of AOR Iris Singapore. The campaign creative depicts a pair of players going one-on-one on an urban street, with computer graphics making the two seem to stream ribbons and shards of color as they play. While voiceover has the players talking about the aggressiveness, speed and talent needed to play the game, the players skid into walls, do street-running style leaps off of building flanks and charge around corners. A 20-second ad focuses on skill; the second is about speed, and a 30-second ad pitches speed against skill. BNS also did high-resolution print elements for the campaign matching these three themes. "The challenge ... was to dramatically show how street football is played," said BNS London's executive producer Kayt Hall, in a statement. Hall said the animation style uses the players' actions and even the movement of their clothes to convey the sport. An APB spokesperson tells Marketing Daily that Tiger Street Football, in its second year, is the first of five events that that APB will sponsor this year. She says Tiger Street Football will then head to Singapore, China and Malaysia before culminating in the Grand Final event in Vietnam this coming September. Over the years the brand has been involved in the Tiger Cup, an AFC-sanctioned, ASEAN Football Tournament, and “Tiger 5s,” an Indoor Tournament with five players per team, per the spokesperson, who said that, more recently the company has been a broadcast sponsor of Barclay’s Premier League. "Through football, Tiger has made good connections with its consumers regionally," she says. "Tiger Street football makes the ideal platform as it celebrates street culture; featuring entertainment that has an edgy street vibe, along with beer gardens and football clinics to provide an immersive experience for the consumers."
Ace Hardware is hoping to increase consumer awareness of its paint department. “Find Your Soul Paint” is the Oak Brook, Ill.-based retailer's first-ever fully integrated campaign dedicated entirely to paint. In researching for the campaign, Ace discovered that most consumers want and need “validation and guidance” in the color selection process. Consumers have come to believe that "do it yourself" means "do it alone." Ace recognizes that the color selection journey is a very personal process -- an expression of its customers' own unique style. The “Find Your Soul Paint” campaign features colors from Ace's new paint brand -- Clark+Kensington -- a premium line of paint and primer in one, offered in both interior and exterior formulas, available exclusively at Ace. The paint line features 120 new colors. The campaign “personifies Ace's helpful nature by demonstrating our ability to listen to the needs of our customers and by helping them to navigate the color selection journey," said John Surane, senior vice president, merchandising, marketing, advertising and paint for Ace Hardware Corp., in a release. Included in the campaign are national TV and print, targeted online, radio spots and online videos. In the TV spot, viewers meet a woman who comes to Ace with a color in mind. As she tries to explain the color she wants, she has difficulty articulating her vision for the color. With an intuitive Ace associate guiding her along the way, she wades through the choices to arrive at "the one" color of her dreams -- her soul paint. The online videos include 30 humorous, mocumentary-style videos that highlight the personas of 10 different paint colors from the Clark+Kensington color palette through candid interviews, brief introductions and dating scenes. All of the videos are featured on Ace's Facebook site. The personas also will be seen on in-store signage, print advertisements, and emails to members of the Ace Rewards customer loyalty program.
In the new mobile world, it’s all about data. In a new advertising campaign, Sprint -- via its new agencies Leo Burnett and Digitas -- showcases how the limits placed on data consumption by other providers lead to tough choices about what is worth downloading. “The way people are consuming data on their phones, consumption is going up and up,” Mark Moll, a creative director at Leo Burnett who helped develop the campaign, tells Marketing Daily. In the first of five commercials that made their debut last week, NBA forward Kevin Durant (who was the MVP of the 2012 All-Star Game) describes a great play he made the previous night, intercut with the action. “I was double teamed -- no one to pass it to. So I pulled up and hit the shot for the win,” he says. As he’s about to launch the shot, the action freezes. “And you didn’t see it, I get that,” Durant says, explaining that data plans can make such viewing costly. “But seriously, you chose to download Doodle Jump instead of streaming my shot.” The spot then encourages people to “avoid a data dilemma.” “If we’re going to come with that message and make it clear, we should lean into the fact that you’re going to have to make a choice,” Moll says. “[The message] is more compelling when you’ve got something that’s going to be taken away. It’s got more tension in it.” Forthcoming spots in the campaign depict parents unable to upload pictures from their son’s graduation and a man being dressed down by his boss for not making a video teleconference call because of data limits. The idea is to make it clear that people who have limits on their data plans will have to make uncomfortable choices when they approach their monthly limits, Moll says. The campaign is the first since Sprint moved its account to “Team Sprint,” which includes Digitas and Leo Burnett as its marketing agencies, in early February. Departing from its previous “Now Network” theme, the campaign will be looking to drive home Sprint’s message of having a truly unlimited data plan, Moll says. “The strategy is to make unlimited matter,” Moll says. “I think we achieved it in a way that puts it into context in your life.”
Consumers sent over 13 million Super Bowl-related tweets during the Big Game this year -- compared to fewer than 2 million last year -- cementing a fact that every marketer suspected: people are increasingly using Twitter on their mobile devices, tablets, and laptops to interact with friends near and far during major televised sporting events. Twitter has enabled armchair quarterbacks worldwide to transform “watching the game” into a social experience. “Instead of telling my friends next to me, ‘I can’t believe he called that timeout,’ now I can tell 2,000 followers,” said one sports fan in a recent article. Whether it’s the Super Bowl, March Madness, The Olympics, or the World Cup, Twitter has become the virtual stadium, living room, and sports bar combined -- allowing viewers to chat with friends and fellow fans during the game. Twitter also adds a new dimension to real-time sports events, providing fans with real-time commentary on every dramatic twist or stellar play as it happens. With so many engaged fans on Twitter, brands are obviously eager to use the social stream to connect with them during live sporting events. Twitter has become the de facto “second screen” for real-time sporting events, and brands realize it’s the next step in aligning their brand with a sporting event and tapping into fans’ fervor. First marketers had stadium signage, then radio, TV, Internet, and finally Twitter and other social feeds -- each time bringing their brand closer to the fan’s personal experience of the game. Despite the promise of Twitter as a real-time marketing channel during sporting events, many brands still struggle with how to get their messages heard by fans amid a firestorm of tweets. With everyone shouting at once, how can a brand insert itself into the Twitter conversation in an authentic, memorable way? Many brands are now buying paid media ads that appear at the top of Twitter streams to ensure their brand messages don’t get lost in the shuffle…but the trick is to make sure these ads can be optimized on the fly to reflect what’s going on in the game. (Fans sent 12,000 tweets per second during the Super Bowl, so any paid advertising effort on Twitter must be optimizable in real-time to take advantage of constantly shifting conversations.) Here are three ways to use paid media to reach engaged fans on Twitter during a sporting event: 1. Target super-engagers. Make sure your paid media campaigns during a real-time sporting event targets the super-fans who actively tweet and retweet and have thousands of followers. By targeting your campaigns to these super fans, they will in turn share with their followers -- spreading your campaign for you. 2. Link to the ‘second screen.’ Extend TV commercials and paid video campaigns to Twitter by launching a social ad campaign targeting viewers of a particular sporting event. Ensure a continuous message from screen to screen, so paid Twitter ads reflect and extend on the commercials and video you run before and during the game.
Across the mobile ecosystem, the majority of brands –- both consumer and B2B -– are putting in place their 2012 mobile strategies. Retailers, car manufacturers, banks, pharmaceuticals, hotels –- it seems that every business is focused on how to use mobile to more effectively engage with their customers, and for many, a mobile app is a key component of this strategy. With everyone jumping on the app train, it’s no surprise that as of last quarter, 91% of the top 100 brands have a presence in at least one of the major app stores -- or that there are more than 300,000 mobile apps on the market, with more than 30 million downloaded last year. But does launching an app and having downloads really equal success? “What is the goal of your app?” If asked “What’s the goal of your app?” do you have a clear, measurable response? What specific behaviors do you want your app to drive? For some companies, it’s monetization by driving in-app purchases or in-store traffic. For others, it’s driving self-care or gathering input and reviews. When you are trusted enough to be downloaded on a personal device, you have a unique opportunity -- which means you need a goal. Understanding what drives behaviors Once you have your goal defined, ask yourself whether your app is delivering a user experience that influences behaviors aligned to this goal. It’s a matter of understanding -- not guessing-- what drives those behaviors or desired actions. Most companies are using customer data and analytics to some extent, but few are able to automatically determine how best to engage with users and the right time and place for doing this. Your app is a two-way street. You provide information, entertainment, or services and the customer provides data in the form of interaction. The way to make the most of your app is to apply analytics to the data culled from interaction with the app, and then use it to influence or “nudge” certain behaviors. From downloads to engagement With capabilities around advanced analytics that incorporate machine learning technology to identify the right context for engaging with a customer, companies not only drive app downloads, but also app usage: *Telecom provider: Keep prepaid customers topped up by encouraging the precise behavior that causes them to spend. Don’t just send top up incentives when the prepaid balance reaches a threshold -- predict the rate at which your subscriber will reach expiry and analyze how they consume data, then proactively engage with your customer to stimulate usage. *Pharmaceutical company: Study context to determine how and when to encourage diabetes patients to input blood sugar levels, identify patterns, and manage supply levels. Identify optimal care, then use the app to nudge the patient to follow the best plan and continue to enter information; even rewarding compliance with retailer discounts on supplies. *Bank: Increase transfers to savings accounts by understanding the contexts associated with that behavior. When a customer makes a one-time deposit into a checking account, for example, or their balance reaches a certain level, take action by delivering the right information or alert at the right time. By understanding when customers are making internal transfers, you can identify how and when to prompt the desired action. Although applying analytics to a wealth of behavioral data may sound daunting, context-aware computing technologies are allowing companies to automate this process and leverage the unique opportunity that the mobile channel presents –- engaging their users in new ways. Smart, cloud-based solutions gather, analyze, and even act on the massive amounts of data available to mobile players. This means going far beyond understanding someone’s demographics to determine how best to engage with them through a mobile device, but recognizing the best time and place for proactively doing so. Putting your app to work Think about your mobile presence, think about your customers, and think about how your app can deliver the results you want; whether customer monetization, customer trust, customer loyalty or customer advocacy. If you have an app, then you have data. The question is -– what are you doing with it? Now it’s time to apply modern analytics to the data for the benefit of you and your customers.